Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to apparatus for the storage and retrieval of data and information. More particularly, it relates to improvements in apparatus for transporting information storage disks, for example, magnetic, optic and magneto-optic storage disks, in a storage and retrieval device commonly referred to as an automated disk library.
Automated disk libraries, also known as "juke-boxes", are known in the art for storing and accessing a large number of data storage disks. Examples of such libraries are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,286,790, 4,502,133, 4,504,936, 4,608,679, 4,614,474, 4,787,074 and 4,817,071. In such libraries, each information storage disk is housed in a protective cartridge or carrier which holds the disk and permits disk handling while permitting accessibility to the disk for data recording and/or retrieval. The disk carriers, with the associated disks, are supported by one or more storage racks which are arranged to support the disk and disk carriers in closely spaced parallel planes, for example, one above the other with the disks being disposed horizontally. Such automated disk libraries commonly include one or more disk drives for recording and/or retrieving information to or from a disk, as well as a disk carrier transport mechanism for transporting a selected carrier and disk between the storage location and the disk drive unit.
Heretofore, automated data libraries have either utilized self-loading disk drives which, after a disk carrier is partially loaded into the loading slot, draws the carrier the rest of the way into the drive, or utilized disk drives which required a sufficiently complicated loading mechanism as part of the transport carriage that it was not practical to utilize such a data library with self-loading disk drives. As a result, automated data library purchasers had to choose between self-loading disk drives, or those requiring a complicated loading mechanism, not having the option of utilizing either or both types of disk drives in a single automated data library, with the attendant loss of flexibility to the library user.
It will thus be seen that the provision of an automated disk library which provides a simple, lightweight, effective means for loading a disk carrier into a non-self-loading disk drive without the attendant cost, bulk and weight of the prior art devices would be desirable for the flexibility it would provide to automated data library users.